Phillips, of Newton, and Eldridge, of Needham, received the Ginger Lawrence Volunteer Award. Phillips was honored for work as a field sampler and efforts to eradicate invasive weeds, and map and document hand-pulling efforts. Eldridge was honored for his photography of the river and its wildlife that the association uses online and in newsletters, reports and other document, according to a press release from the association.

Kimmel, the former commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection received the Rita Barron Public Official Award in recognition of his leadership in the state’s Sustainable Water Management Initiative to improve water management. He was also recognized for helping Massachusetts become the first state to ban the disposal of commercial food waste. Kimmel was recently picked to be president of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Blatt, executive director of the Massachusetts Rivers Alliance, received the Anne M. Blackburn Lifetime Achievement Award. Blatt “has spent countless hours advocating for sound science, protective streamflow standards, sustainable water allocation, and fisheries’ protection in the commonwealth’s rivers and streams,” the association wrote in the release.

Boston College Law School Professor Zigmunt J.B. Plater delivered the keynote speech, describing the 1970s legal fight to protect the snail darter, which was threatened by a Tennessee Valley Authority proposals to put a dam on the Little Tennessee River.

"His work on this case became the Supreme Court's first interpretation of the Endangered Species Act of 1973," the association wrote.